A half-hour earlier, a trio of not-quite-nude models appeared on the outdoor stage positioned near Painted Alive Gallery on Royal Street. To the cheers of the crowd, artists Amzie Adams, Robert Guthrie and Craig Tracy began brushing paint over exposed flesh.

Early in the event, the three artists achieved a variety of expressive styles, reflecting various art historic models. Tracy seemed to follow a neo-dada path, applying a continuous coat of Yves Klein blue to his female canvas. Guthrie channeled Willem De Kooning, applying energetic diagonal stripes to his patient female subject. Adams apparently sought a cryptic pseudo symbology, a la Adolph Gottlieb, as he accented the anatomy of his lithe male model with seemingly meaningful Xs, circles and other patterns.

But, as the performance wore on, all styles seemed to dissolve into a psychedelic slurry, as the artists swapped models, whose bodies were basted in layer after layer of Day-Glo pigment and showered in flurries of glitter.

Then came the promised surprise ending, as Adams, Guthrie and Tracy removed their shirts and relinquished their brushes to their models, who gleefully gave them a taste of their own artistic medicine -- actually, more a bath than a mere taste.